As manhood approaches and childhood left
There’s baggage to shed, old ways made bereft;
Eager to fly as all teenagers are
This pedestrian World seems too slow for your star –
Where you now are is only one phase
Others will follow – tradition to craze;
Feeling time pass, with you as the centre,
Leaving one doorway, another to enter –
Some acts will bring pride, while others bring shame,
The process is part of the human game –
Learn from the second and build on the first
And see that no failure quenches the thirst
For striving to reach an horizon far
That recedes as you go, true to your star.
Those human flaws that are prone to expand
Were it not for that hidden, helping hand
That’s there ever waiting for each one of us
To lift us out of and up from the dust.
The World is before you – the capital stored
From past generations should not be ignored,
But wisely used, changing old to the new,
A fit gift for those who come after you.
Life is a link on a chain, like a path
Leading from entry to an exit at last
Where unrevealed Worlds are yet to be found
The simplest of which is for us too profound.
We are one and alone within our role
And yet nothing unless, part of a whole –
It’s enigmatic and paradoxical
To discover new things but never know all,
For we finite creatures but vaguely see
The idea beyond; infinity.
Judge things on their merits and not on trends
Seek value not quantity choosing your friends.
Assess all you do so acts integrate
Into the path of life that’s your fate;
The one given you from which you can’t hide
Though how you act only you can decide.
Trust not those who raise humans higher than all
But trust less those who would make us too small.
A supreme being can sometimes seem odd
But be not ashamed to pay homage to God –
Something above us to garner us in
When we fail to see that losers can win –
Receiving rewards from those scattered seeds,
The seeds of good thoughts, good words and good deeds –
Matching with others, the loved and unloved
The greatest of gifts, to love and be loved.
When one has nothing, then ‘something’ is prized
For those who have all, then ‘nothing’s’ despised.
As you encounter the great and the least
Take note that enough is as good as a feast.
Life is for living, there’s nought to deplore
A whole understanding’s there to explore.
Good luck on your journey, you’re well prepared
And from all misgivings may you be spared.
The above musings from your fond grandpere
Are more than a T-shirt’s worth to wear,
So we’ll hope like him you’ll travel fair
To the land of seen it, done it and been there.
GRUMPS TO ANDREW – 10-12-2000